Happenings in the real life Christmas kitchen

Yes, things have been happening in my real Christmas kitchen -- and that's partially why I have not been here in my virtual kitchen every day as I hoped and planned to do.  My little island (actually a formica-topped desk from my teen years, hand-built by my dad) does not look this neat or tidy today.  Rather, it is piled high with ingredients: dried apricots, golden raisins, chocolate chips, peanut butter chips. evaporated milk, orange slice candy, and more, ready to be turned into kitchen gifts.

It's snowing hard outside

View of our back woods through an upstairs dormer window

Snow-covered balcony outside our bedroom

Looking through a front dormer window down to the snowy road. 

 but it's been a cozy morning in the kitchen as I've baked up Eggnog Log Cookies

photo from Taste of Home

and a double batch of Sacher Torte Cookies.  The recipe for those is here in the archives, but I'm going to put the recipe here right now:

The sacher torte cookies are in the right-hand point of the star -- the small round cookies with the chocolate topping.  There's jam underneath!

This is another of our very favorite Christmas cookie recipes. These are great all year long for special occasions such as tea parties, showers, etc.

SACHER TORTE COOKIES

1 cup butter, softened
1 (4 1/2 oz.) pkg. instant chocolate pudding mix
1 egg
1 teaspoon almond extract
2 cups flour
3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 cup apricot (or raspberry) jam
1/2 cup chocolate chips
3 tablespoons melted butter

Heat oven to 325°. In a large mixing bowl, combine butter and pudding mix; cream together until fluffy. Beat in egg and extract. Gradually add flour, beating at low speed with mixer until dough forms. Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Dip balls in sugar. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased
cookie sheets. With your thumb, make an imprint in center of each ball.

Bake for 15 to 18 minutes or until cookies are firm; remove from sheets immediately to wire racks to cool.

When cookies are cool, fill each indentation with about 1/2 teaspoon jam. At this point, you may find it helpful to place wax paper under your cooling racks to catch any drips of chocolate from the next step.

In a small saucepan, or in microwave, blend chips and butter over low heat until chocolate melts, stirring constantly. Drizzle about 1/2 teaspoon chocolate over each cookie.

Yield: About 4 dozen cookies.

These look pretty and fancy but are very easy to make. I found this recipe in a Yankee magazine article about the Wellesley Cookie Exchange. What a great recipe!

Another day this week I made Coffee Shop Fudge

photo from Taste of Home

and a cookies and creme fudge from a Gooseberry Patch cookbook.  From another Gooseberry cookbook I made a white chocolate snack mix with cheerios, pretzels, rice chex, peanuts, and M&Ms.  I've packaged up two tins of that for gift giving.

All in all there has been a lot going on in my actual Christmas kitchen.  And there is likely to be a lot more kitchen activity in the next few days!